


Breathtaking

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Lost Souls - Poppy Z. Brite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-22
Updated: 2004-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-25 01:46:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1624994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Believing is a lot easier when you have a strange and gifted<br/>creature in your life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathtaking

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Merry

 

 

Breathtaking  
Rated NC-17 for yaoi and bad language  
Non-profit fanfiction  
Pairing: Steve/Ghost  
Fandom: Lost Souls

Ghost raised a finger to his lips.

Steve did not exactly know why they had ended up here, but he knew better   
than to question Ghost when he was in one of his moods. And thusly, here   
they had come, to a dry old house that smelt of damp and candlewax. He had   
the strange feeling of having intruded on an abandoned church. "Why are we   
here?" Maybe he was really trapped in the Lord of the Rings, and Gollum was   
leading him to Shelob's lair.

Shelob had better taste in decor than expected though, and if Gollum was   
this pretty he couldn't blame Frodo for following him rather than trusting   
Sam's instincts.

"It won't be a false dawn tonight. We should be fine."

Ghost had been tenser than usual of late, and it had started to seriously   
worry Steve. He thought by now they had both had time enough to learn to   
deal with the Nothing issue, if not exactly to get over it. He didn't want   
to consider the possibility that anything else could be damaging Ghost's   
health.

"Come on in."

"Are you sure this place is even safe?"

"Yes." Well, you couldn't argue with that. Not with the way Ghost said it,   
all calm and simple certainty. "Come."

Definitely intruding on sacred ground, mused Steve as he stepped through the   
path overgrown in wild garlic. _At least we're protected from  
vampires_, he thought to himself sarcastically.

The house wasn't much better on the inside, cold with the night and   
overgrown by whatever vines and fungi and weeds had decided to make   
themselves at home. The candles lying around looked like they had been used   
not too long ago; it seemed Ghost hadn't taken them somewhere completely   
new.

"Can I borrow your lighter?" Ghost asked, the lighter half-out of Steve's   
pocket before the question was finished.

Steve folded his arms, watching Ghost at work. "Are you going to tell me why   
we're here?"

"You'll see in a moment," Ghost replied, still not answering the question.   
He had been avoiding it all evening, and it was starting to make Steve   
nervous.

Ghost flipped the lighter shut after a while, not lighting all the candles   
but seeming satisfied with the gentle glow he had left the room filled with.   
"Give me a moment," he ordered quietly, taking Steve's shoulders and pushing   
him back a few steps. "There. Now," he continued, taking Steve's face in his   
hands and brushing his thumbs over his friend's eyelids, urging them to   
close. "Close your eyes, you can't look for a moment."

"Ghost, this is kind of creepy -"

"Shh. I promise, it won't hurt."

"I know, but-"

Ghost ignored Steve's words, glancing around the room before closing his own   
eyes. "There. _There_. Can you sense it now?"

"No. Nothing."

"Really?" Ghost sounded surprised. "Open your eyes."

"Christ!" Steve exclaimed upon obeying Ghost's command, rather   
embarrassingly finding himself backing up into his friend in search of   
something to settle his nerves. "What the hell are those?"

Ghost opened his own eyes and smiled at the familiar creatures. To Steve,   
they looked like tufts of candyfloss being blown about in wind - were   
candyfloss light, the room actually windy, and had candyfloss ever been   
known to _giggle_. "Ghost?"

"Wisps, Steve," he replied, smiling at one that danced around his   
outstretched hand before it rejoined a few others that had settled around   
the burnt-out lightbulb.

"Are they dangerous?"

Ghost's laugh seemed to get echoed by the wisps. "If you upset one, it might   
give you frostbite."

"Very funny. How the Hell did they get here?"

"Because you believed." Ghost pointed down at the floor beneath them, and   
Steve realised the vines coming up between the cracks in the floorboard had   
not grown in any random pattern at all. Granted that Steve was no expert at   
witchcraft, but it was fairly bloody obvious that an arrangement of   
geometric shapes like this was about as likely to be a natural occurrence as   
traffic lights turning from red to green.

"Man, have you summoned something?"

"No. You did. I told you - you believed, so they came."

"Believed in what?" Steve pressed on, backing away from a wisp determined to   
try and investigate the contents of his sneakers. "I don't know what the   
Hell these are, and I'm a bloody atheist! I don't believe in anything!"

"You believe some things are real," Ghost reminded his friend, taking   
Steve's hand. "That is enough. I would show you more if I could, but finding   
ways to open your eyes is difficult." He brushed his thumb over Steve's   
hand, lingering longer than necessary and knowing it but daring to   
nonetheless. "You take too much pride in being blind."

"You take too much pride in being fucking cryptic. Jesus," Steve breathed.   
"What do these things do?"

"They look after the forest."

"Like ents?"

"Ents aren't real."

Steve stared, open-mouthed for a moment, before gesturing widely for the   
world to just go away for a moment while he regained his sanity. "Woah. Just   
\- just time out for a moment. My brain _hurts_. What the hell is going   
on, Ghost?"

The pale-haired boy's face fell. "I thought - I thought you would like -"

"Yeah, well, I don't deal well with weird things, alright?" And Ghost's   
expression made Steve's gut twist. God, it wasn't fair that Ghost should be   
so alone in his world, but he was pretty sure the world couldn't support two   
Ghosts. "Man, I'm sorry -"

"It's alright," Ghost cut across. "It's fine."

"No it's not. I've been a shit all evening, and you deserve better."

Ghost touched his hand lightly to Steve's, still holding the lighter against   
his palm with his index finger. "It's fine," he repeated, sounding a little   
more convincing this time, but it was still hurt and Steve decided that if   
there was ever a time to put his neck on the line, this was it.

"Ghost, you're an amazing guy and I will _never_ figure out what makes   
you hang out with me or what makes you love me, and I just think - I'm a   
right bastard to you sometimes, and I'm sorry for it, and -"

"Steve." Ghost sounded slightly bemused. "I think -"

"If I kiss you, will it make up for it?"

Ghost dropped the lighter, eyes wide with surprise. "Don't joke about this.   
Please, Steve, I can't -"

"No," Steve cut in before pressing his lips up against Ghost's, loving the   
gasp it brought from the pale-haired boy before he wrapped his arms around   
his friend. _No. No kidding yourself, Steve. This is your lover. This is  
the fucking love of your life, so get over it._

Ghost seemed not to mind being crushed, dark eyelashes closing as he gave   
into the kiss, lips soft and cool and unsearching because he had no need to   
search.

Steve pulled back and licked his lips. "Shit. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have -"

"Did you want to?"

"Yes," Steve replied at once, surprised Ghost even asked the question.   
_Hell yes_ , he'd wanted to. And the answer seemed enough for Ghost, who   
wrapped his arms around Steve's waist, rested his hands in the small of his   
friend's back.

"Do you want more?" He asked softly, breath warm against Steve's shoulder   
and contrasting with the warmth of the room. Everything male and impatient   
in Steve leapt to attention with the question, and no matter what he could   
say to try and persuade himself otherwise, he _knew_ the answer.

"Hell yeah."

For all Ghost's gentle spirit and Steve's self-doubt, they were still just   
boys at heart, and the thrill of removing each item of clothing increased   
and increased until they staggered to the floor, nothing left on but Ghost's   
sandals and Steve's open shirt. Steve swallowed as Ghost knelt over him,   
skin cool from the night air, and felt a pang of nausea hit his stomach. He   
didn't deserve this, didn't deserve -

"I'm not Ann," Ghost whispered in Steve's ear, slender fingers trailing down   
the dark-haired boy's chest. Ghost knew it was what Steve wanted to hear,   
terrible as it was to dismiss her so, but he _got_ Steve and he   
_wanted_ him. He waited for a moment as Steve's hands massaged their   
way down his abdomen, waited for a "No", a "Stop", but none came, and as one   
hand reached for him he reached back, linking them, sharing their movements   
and sharing Steve's knowledge of just where, just _how_ to touch.

It was frightening. It was glorious. It was every little dark, warm, wet   
memory from the shadows of Ghost's dreams wrapped into firm and knowing   
touches, and Ghost's arm ached from the movements that he had rarely   
indulged in before. His thoughts were spinning as he rested his forehead   
against Steve's, feeling Steve's mind as crimson and filled with want as his   
own, desires and needs spiralling until they were both dizzy. And the wisps   
had been leaving, smug and giggling, and he did not care where they went or   
what trees they were guarding at this moment in time, because the wooden   
floor seemed to soak into his knees as he moved against Steve and the world   
was _breathtaking_.

Steve had always thought it a little gross how guys had sex, but the feel of   
Ghost shifting against him made him aware of its appeal, and he wondered how   
it would feel to be inside the pale boy. Something occurred to him as he   
reached one hand behind Ghost, tracing fingers down the small of his lover's   
back. "Have you ever done this before, man?"

"In a way," came the cryptic response, made more human by the soft panting   
sounds Ghost could not repress. "I dreamt, sometimes -"

"You still have your cherry?"

Ghost frowned, then paled even further - Steve wondered for a moment how   
that was humanly possible - as a finger pressed firmly against his entrance.   
"I, I - yes," the last word came as a whisper, and Steve nuzzled Ghost's   
cheek comfortingly with his nose.

"I won't take it here," he decided aloud, ignoring the fact that part of him   
knew he had no right to take it at all, before gulping a little too loud   
when Ghost relaxed and his finger slid in. _Christ_ , if Ghost was that   
tight and hot around one finger -

Ghost made a strangled cry that managed to be a little more respectable than   
a whimper before hooking both arms around Steve's neck, leaving his friend's   
erection painfully hard and ignored as his own orgasm took him. "I love   
you," He sobbed against Steve's shoulder as he came, wet and hot and   
deliciously messy, and Steve decided now was not the time to make jokes   
about his friend - _lover_ \- being a big girl's blouse, even if he was   
a little disgruntled about his abandoned erection. Christ, Jesus Christ in   
heaven above, Ghost was _beautiful_ out of control. He eased his finger   
out, quietly amused by its slight numbness, using the now freed hand to   
finish himself off while Ghost shivered against his chest, too exhausted to   
complain that Steve wasn't too discrete with his orgasm either.

They had been still a while, the wisps long gone and most of the candles   
burnt out, when Steve finally stirred. Ghost hadn't wanted to move; between   
Steve's heartbeat and his own satiation, he never wanted to move again.   
Steve knew enough to know it certainly wasn't a time to start chatting away,   
because if there was anyone on earth who _got_ quiet time, it was   
Ghost. Instead, he simply shifted to ease the numbness of lying on a hard   
floor, and gently nudged Ghost's head so it was resting more comfortably on   
his chest rather than digging into his breastbone. It was odd, really, how   
he didn't want to do anything for once. Only Ghost could make you feel like   
you'd been enlightened or something; settled and warm and calm and not   
_wanting_.

Jesus. Ghost was a virgin. It made sense, really - it fitted the whole image   
\- but it wasn't something Steve had quite been prepared for. If Ghost was a   
virgin, he'd probably never done anything like this before either, and it   
was a weird thought. He didn't want to make Ghost change, because even if   
losing his virginity had been just another tick on Steve's list of things to   
do before he was thirty, he knew it would really mean something to Ghost.   
Then there was the fact that men in Ghost's family didn't really have much   
of a role to play, and he didn't have the possibility of knocking Ghost up   
to add to reasons to stay with his lover. He didn't want to ever leave   
Ghost, ever, but Christ, he didn't have much of a good record so far, and if   
he _ever_ hurt Ghost...

Ghost placed a kiss lightly on his breastbone before leaning up. "Steve?"

"Mmhm?"

"Don't worry." He took one of Steve's hands, raised it to his lips and   
kissed it. "I'll make sure we're fine."

And Steve wasn't sure why, but he believed him.

The End

 

 

 


End file.
